Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and the discovery of the Great Mexica Temple

One morning at the end of February 1978, a group of workers carrying out wiring works on the corner behind the Sagrario building of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City found a huge carved monolith more than three meters in diameter. . They immediately understood that this was an important find.

The next morning they informed the corresponding authorities who confirmed the importance of this discovery. The fortuitous encounter with the monolith of Coyolxauhqui, the lunar goddess of the Mexica, prompted the Templo Mayor Project, led by Dr. Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences.

The magnitude of this project, of the excavations carried out and of the pieces that were found, analyzed and contextualized, turned what was known until then about the Mexica civilization. He helped recompose fragments of the past that had been forgotten and hidden under the foundations of the current Mexican capital.

The Coyolxauhqui monolith

That circular monolith kept a series of clues that indicated where the main temple of the sacred precinct of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Mexica, could be found.

The carved rock represents the Coyolxauhqui –“the one with bells painted on her cheeks”–. According to mythology, she was the daughter of Coatlicue, the mother deity of all gods. In a rage, Coyolxauhqui tried to throw her mother off the sacred hill Coatepec, the abode of the gods, when Coatlicue was about to give birth to Huitzilopochtli –the sun god and the god of war–. Faced with the risk, Huitzilopochtli was born before his time. Already dressed in his military attributes, he decapitated his sister and threw his body until he ended up completely dismembered at the foot of the hill.

Staging this battle, the lunar goddess carved with care by Mexica artisans in a block of andesite rock weighing almost eight tons was deposited at the foot of one of the stairs of the Great Temple, the one that led to the temple dedicated to Huitzilopochtli.

The Great Temple, a metaphor of the Mexica worldview

The architectural structure of the Templo Mayor, which came to light thanks to the hard work of more than four decades by the team led by Professor Matos Moctezuma, functioned as a metaphor for the Mexica worldview.

The huge pyramidal block raised in several construction stages seems to replicate the Coatepec hill. Its truncated peak is crowned by two small temples, one dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and the other to Tlaloc, the god of rain, of water capable of fertilizing the earth.

Tlaloc is crucial for the peoples of the Valley of Mexico. They needed their power to grow good crops and guarantee the sustenance of society. On the other hand, within the complementary dual worldview that identifies the Mesoamerican civilizations, Tlaloc also had a negative side: he could send lightning, frost and storms capable of compromising the crops.

The god of war Huitzilopochtli was the patron deity of the Mexica. His choice is not accidental, since the Mexica formed an expansionist and warlike society that, under his tutelage, managed to become the most powerful people in the Mesoamerican area.

death and life

Matos Moctezuma, nicknamed “the greatest archaeologist”, has been working on this site since its discovery. Over the years he has unearthed endless pieces and objects that recompose this ceremonial space. At the same time, they shed light on the way in which this society understood and related to the world, to each other and to their natural environment.

He has also dedicated a good part of his scientific production to the rites related to the death of the Mexica civilization and how it is reflected in his materials. Freeing him from prejudices, myths and contemporary ideologies, his rigorous investigation has managed to uncover and analyze some aspects of the importance of death for the Mexica people.

One of the readings is that, among the possible gifts for the gods, death was the most precious gift, since they considered that it favored the continuation of life. The sacrificial rituals were understood as a kind of mirror of the cycles of nature, where the rain came to make the plants reborn after their death during the dry period. Matos Moctezuma has published a series of books that delve into this subject, such as Death at the edge of obsidian: the Nahuas facing death, Life and Death in the Great Temple y Death among the Mexica.

The heritage legacy

The responsibility of the “major archaeologist” has gone beyond the rigorous and scientific study of the remains of the past. He has also committed himself to the pedagogical and social work of making the rich archaeological heritage of Ancient Mexico known to the non-specialized public and valuing it.

Among its multiple activities related to dissemination and social commitment, the construction of the Museo del Templo Mayor stands out, on the land adjacent to the place where the Coyolxauhqui was found. Inaugurated in 1987, the museum was designed by Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. The collaborative work that was established between Ramírez Vázquez and Matos Moctezuma for the conception of the exhibition space and the museographic project is evident, since the articulation of the museum symbolically reproduces the structure of the Templo Mayor mentioned above.

The research carried out by the Princess of Asturias Award and the musealization of the findings are capable of bringing visitors closer to the apparently distant way of life and understanding of the world of the Mexica civilization. By shedding light on this process, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma becomes the main interlocutor between ancient and current Mexico. In short, he is the “Senior Archaeologist”.

Renata Ribeiro dos Santos, Professor of the Department of History of Art and Musicology, Oviedo University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.